the road in a cloud of dust.

Where the track to the station branched off the main road one of the
troopers met and stopped her. The man recognised her from the previous
day.

"Very sorry, Mrs. Burke," he said, "but I've been sent to stop anyone
going near the place."

"Why can't I go? I want to know how they are and whether I can't help to
nurse them," she said.

"They're both pretty bad, I believe," the trooper answered. "I don't
think you could do anything now, because there's the doctor and Mrs.
Eustace and my mate looking after them. But I'll tell the doctor, and
maybe to-morrow----"

Mrs. Burke slowly wheeled her horse.

"I shall not come to-morrow," she said. "It is evident I'm not wanted.
But I shall come in a few days and take one of them away with me to my
house. I'm sure Mr. Durham would be much better away from here. Tell the
doctor I say so. Who is taking Mr. Durham's place?"

"Taking up his work do you mean?"

"Yes--who is looking for the man who stole my deeds from the bank? Why
aren't you doing it, instead of wasting your time here?"

"Oh, that'll be all right, Mrs. Burke. We've got a clue--don't you be
uneasy."

"I shall be uneasy until Mr. Durham is able to look after it again. He
is the only hope I have of ever seeing my papers again."

"You're right," the trooper exclaimed. "He's the smartest man for the
job there is. That's why he's lying there now--we know for certain he
was on their track when he got here, and as soon as they saw who it was
after them, they went for him. It wasn't the fault of the chap who tried
to brain him that the sub-inspector is alive to-day."

"He is very badly hurt?" Mrs. Burke asked.

"The chap who hit him saw to that--I'd just like to have my hands on him
for a few minutes, the mean hound. There was probably more than one, and
while the sub-inspector was facing the others, this one must have crept
up behind him and tried to brain him from the back. But we'll get him,
and then he will know something."

"You think you will catch them?"

"Catch them? Of course we shall. But it's the chap who knocked the
sub-inspector on the head we want mostly."

"You'll punish him when you do catch him?" she asked, with a gleam in
her eyes.

"Ah!" he exclaimed.

She leaned forward.

"I hope you do," she said. "I would--if I were a man--even if they had
not stolen my papers."

CHAPTER XII

AS THROUGH A MIST

Wallace had scarcely completed his report wh